Sympathia
by Twilight Zephyr
Summary: Marcus had never thought to hope for any of this, but he loved and appreciated it more then anything else. Mareth, slash, mpreg, Winner of the TwiSlash Awards Best Non-Human AU one-shot


**Notes:** A little bit of mpreg goodness for all of you people who love this. I originally wrote this on paper by hand during class, but I cleaned it up a bit when I typed it up on the computer and all that. I hope that this is appreciated.  
**Title:** Sympathia  
**Fandom:** _Twilight_ series  
**Pairing:** Marcus/Seth ; mentions of Jasper/Jacob  
**Rating:** pg  
**Words:** 2021 words  
**Dedication:** Dedicated to starry_nights88 because I say so. And because she totally deserves this for being awesome and amazing.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own the _Twilight_ series, it's the property of Stephanie Meyer and so are all its characters. Katia, though, is a character of my own creation so technically she does belong to me. Other then that? I didn't make any money off this fic, got it?

**Sympathia**

Not needing sleep was something that Marcus was becoming more and more appreciative as of late because of the benefits it had afforded him. Even though he usually enjoyed spending his nights with Seth, he was just as grateful to have some time to spend with his newest little ball of joy.

So instead of watching his lover sleep, tracing his hand or his features, he was listening to his daughter as she tossed and turned in her crib. She'd just woken up. Marcus let out a soft sigh and carefully untangled himself from where he'd been wrapped around Seth, and got up; he carefully scooped his tiny daughter up into his arms.

Almost immediately she stopped her fussing and her eyes blinked open blearily. She peered up at her father with her crystalline jade eyes – the same colour his had been when he'd been human – and smiled up at him, gurgling happily. Her chubby arms reached up and latched onto his clothes, and then she snuggled closer to him, letting out a soft content sound as she did so.

Marcus smiled down at his daughter and gently placed a finger on her lips to quiet her just a little, "Hush now my dear – you will wake your mother."

Seth didn't enjoy being referred to as their daughter's mother, but Marcus felt that it suited the young man surprisingly well. He thought that it was just the connotations to femininity that Seth didn't like, but he had been the one to carry the child and give birth to her – hence, that made him her mother. So he had taken to referring to Seth as such whenever he spoke with their daughter. And every time he did so, Seth would give him the dirtiest look that he could manage, but it never served to discourage Marcus at all.

Glancing back to the bed, the vampire was relieved to see that Seth was still deeply asleep. It didn't seem like he'd noticed the sudden absence of his lover, or that their daughter's little tantrum had woken him.

Quietly, Marcus slipped out of the room. He knew that Seth was still exhausted from the exertion of their daughter's birth, even though the wounds had long since healed. Since then, the young man had dutifully left their bed every time their daughter woke. And even though Marcus had offered many times to watch the child so as to let Seth sleep, he'd always said that it was fine.

There were still times where Seth truly confused Marcus.

In fact, it was a matter that had sparked their first real argument as a couple. The result had been that Seth had locked Marcus out of their condo for a good three hours; during which time Marcus had taken up a post outside the door. He'd known that eventually Seth would calm down and let him back in – if he broke back in, then that would only make the situation worse.

The woman next door had been rather impressed by how well he handled the situation and that he hadn't stormed off to probably do something stupid. As a result, the two of them had struck up a remarkably good friendship, and it was something that Marcus was very grateful to have.

His reminiscing was cut off when his daughter grabbed his finger and promptly began trying to shove it into her mouth to suck on it. She made a little unhappy noise when she was foiled, which made Marcus laugh softly as he walked his daughter into the hall.

"I suppose you're hungry right now..."

Without disturbing Seth, he closed the door behind him. He made his way slowly towards the kitchen, softly talking to his small daughter the whole way.

Gently, he pulled his finger from her mouth and shifted her into a more safer position as he opened the fridge and removed a bottle of formula. She made an unhappy noise at the loss, but quieted down again when Marcus gently rocked her with the arm that still held her. She gave a huge smile which split her small face, and waved her arms about cheerfully before settling down completely.

Even though Marcus rarely got to feed his daughter – she was usually plucked from his arms by a tired looking Seth – he knew exactly what to do.

The bottles were microwaveable, and with a little difficulty Marcus was able to unscrew the cap, which he then set aside. Sticking the bottle in the microwave, he set the timer exactly as Seth always did, and then settled in against the counter to wait. He smiled and thought of his daughter and how she had endeared herself to the rest of their rather large extended family.

He stroked her tiny nose with his forefinger, chuckling quietly as she crossed her eyes to look at it. Marcus loved his daughter dearly, and he adored her. He sighed a little wistfully.

"How I wish your namesake could see you, hold you. The two of you would have shared so much... I'm a little envious... you look so much like her." Marcus watched as she clapped her hands together and grinned up at him; but she remained silent as he spoke.

"My little dear..." he murmured. "Oh Katia, you look so much like her, and yet I see far too much of me in you." He smiled, "However, you resemble your mother so much; you're so beautiful, just like him. You'll be a little heartbreaker one day, I know it."

The microwave beeped.

Marcus paused and removed the bottle, testing it on his finger. He might not have been as accurate a judge of temperature as Seth, but he knew what his daughter's preferences were.

The formula was specially developed by Carlisle after the birth of Jacob and Jasper's twins. Even though the shifter's body did produce milk naturally for the baby, the children had a nasty tendency to cause some minor scarring from their strength. The only real difference between a human child and the hybrid children was the early development of fangs.

Katia's formula was a mixture of human baby formula and a cocktail of chemicals and nutrients found in human blood.

It didn't smell all that appealing, but Carlisle thought that it would be better for the children if they were weaned off of human blood before they could even taste it.

"Oh, don't make that face," Marcus chastised her with a small smile. She wrinkled up her face into one of disgust, which made him chuckle. "You know that you must, my dear. Will you drink it for me? I suppose I'm a little selfish, wanting to keep your mother all to myself; but I don't mind sharing him with you."

After a little more encouragement, Katia took the bottle. Marcus smiled as he watched his daughter feed. He rocked her gently, humming as he did so. It was an old song that his mother had used to sing to him when he was younger; and then he had sung it to his sister when she was a young child as well.

It seemed as though his daughter enjoyed it too – it didn't take her long before she had finished her bottle and had drifted back off to sleep with a little contented noise.

Marcus continued to rock her back and forth for a few more minutes, savouring his time with his daughter before he had to put her back to bed. He knew that it wouldn't be too long until she was a grown woman who would be moving onto bigger things.

Thinking about that made him feel old even though he didn't look a day over twenty-eight. And then there was Seth who didn't look much older then nineteen. It was a combination of Seth's shifter blood and the regular exposure to Marcus' venom that kept the young man so young.

He wondered how their daughter would feel about it.

Going back to his shared room, Marcus was just tucking Katia back into her crib when he felt warm arms slip around his waist. And then he felt the body of his mate settle against his back with familiar pressure.

"You could've woken me," Seth murmured.

Marcus brushed aside a lock of his daughter's hair before turning to his mate and gathering him up into his arms, "I don't mind, and you needed the rest."

"She doesn't cry when you take her," Seth continued. "I'm a bit jealous."

Pressing his lips to the shifter's forehead, Marcus smiled, "You're so full of life and energy; she picks up on that. And just how you are... you encourage her to be more rambunctious."

"And you're the calm and patient one who is capable of actually being stern. At least I know who to let handle lectures and punishment." Seth rolled up onto his toes and pulled the vampire down to kiss him. He grinned as they pulled away. "But right now, I think you should come back to bed with the mother of your child."

That made Marcus smile, and he leaned down to let his forehead rest against Seth's, "You finally referred to yourself as Katia's mother."

"Shut up Marcus."

Marcus' smile grew, "You are going to teach our daughter some bad habits."

"Just kiss me Marcus." Seth rolled his eyes, but grinned as Marcus finally leaned down and pressed his lips to his while simultaneously pushing him back towards the bed. He slipped his arms up Marcus' chest and then wrapped them around the vampire's neck, pulling him down.

There were a few things that he missed about life before Katia – mostly just the intimacies – but their little bundle of joy made up for it all. While he did feel a longing for some time with just him and Marcus, his daughter had given him so much that he couldn't imagine life without her. He was happy with how things were, he wouldn't change them for any reason.

He could live with the restrictions on intimacies; since time flowed differently for him then it did for a human, his daughter would grow up in a blink of an eye, he wanted to appreciate the time that he did have with her. And besides, once she was older and had a bit more independence, then their lives would shift again.

Marcus knew what his younger lover was after.

"You know that we can't," he murmured against the other's lips.

"Don't be difficult," Seth replied. "I told you before; everything's healed and I feel fine. Why can't we?"

At that, Marcus smiled, "I didn't mean that we can't ever, but not right now. Wait until morning; we'll wake Katia up." _And I just put her to sleep. You need the rest too._

With a sigh and a grumble, Seth nodded. Rosalie and his sister would be visiting the next day – as they always did – to take Katia for a walk with her 'cousins' and to give the new parents a little time alone together, something that was a rare gift for them. The two aunts were always happy to help out wherever they could, mostly because Rosalie adored children almost as much as she did her mate, and Leah just loved her baby brother – his children were no different.

The two mates settled back down into their bed, Seth snuggling as close as he could to his vampire, using the other's cold chest as a pillow as he settled in. Even if he wouldn't admit it, he was tired.

Marcus pressed his lips to the top of the other's head, "Goodnight."

"... night Marcus." Seth yawned, before he drifted off, leaving the other to listen to his peaceful breathing and heartbeat.

Marcus was perfectly happy to be where he was. Nothing could have made his life better, and he would give up nothing of it.

**FIN.**

I've had a few people say that they were interested in seeing some Mareth mpreg, and since I'm the only person who writes it, I figured that it would have to be me who delivered. And for those of you who read this and thought of _Complexity_, I will say now that **there will be no mpreg in _Complexity._** I know that some of my readers aren't comfortable with it and I never planned nor plan to put it into that particular fic or any ones that relate to it.

So um, take your mpreg goodness and be happy with it. Gosh, I love this pairing far too much – it needs more love people, help me out here!

As always, review or comment if you liked; especially if you're going to be favoriting this.

Twilight.


End file.
